IRL Workplaces Are Under the Spell of TikTok's Office Sirens
Starched button-ups, torn pantyhose, and padded blazers: Beware the allure of the office siren.
Earlier this year, TikTok, the internet's water cooler, established a sauced-up 9-5 fashion aesthetic deemed "office siren," birthing a movement that now has millions (and millions) of views on the app. But, suddenly, the song of the office siren is blaring into IRL workplaces.
Office siren describes a bold and occasionally risqué spin on corporate wardrobes. Its use of "siren," a term for mythological female-coded creatures whose singing lured unwitting sailors to their doom, joins a host of femme-forward reclamations of verbiage once utilized to disparage women.
As for the trend itself, think short hemlines, figure-hugging blazers and conspicuously low-rise slacks, significantly spicier and more fashion-forward than the stuff worn by Jim and Pam on The Office (I'm undecided on Meredith). The office siren look is so popular that a Google search turns up curated office siren product pages from fast-fashion sites like Cider and ASOS.
Now, they may say that life imitates art but the office siren trend at first appeared to be just another entry in the endless file cabinet of style concepts that exist solely on TikTok.
Sure, codes of the coquette aesthetic and mob wives' fur coats might've translated IRL but no one is actually dressing like a coastal grandma or going full goblincore.
Against all odds, though, the office siren trend has evolved from the digital realm into the real world. Talk about a promotion.
The trend started, as most do, as a blend of restless personal style and romanticized mundanities (a frequent hit with Gen-Z), bringing together elements of existing inclinations, like "sexy librarian" and the Bayonetta glasses.
Office siren has more overt sex appeal than corpcore, though, aligning with the sultry office drones who stalked last year's runways though the look isn't always as sensual as it sounds: An office siren sometimes simply wears a sleeveless vest or crop top. It's all about personality.
As such, the office siren look has become a guiding light for actual officewear as Gen-Zers navigate corporate waters for the first time.
This is another one of the many lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic as the TikTok generation enters adulthood.
Add on that many of the folks most visibly pushing these trends are full-time influencers who've never heard the phrase "dress code" and the lines between professional wardrobes and personal style get even blurrier, though they're also indicative of loosening standards of dress at even the most corporate companies.
But not all TikTokers are happy to see the office siren to clock in. Perhaps because they're the last generation to live through stodgy workplace norms, Millennials are especially keen to lecture the "kids" for not dressing "respectfully" or "modest" enough at the office.
This indirect officewear gatekeeping has real consequences.
When one woman dared to wear shorts to an interview, the digital outrage was so overt that it scored her an interview in People.
All the sensitivity over office clothes undermines my own expectations of how far (I'd like to think) society has come since the days when fair maidens dared not even allow a sliver of leg show.
Shouldn't we be more angry about dated metrics of dress than a perceived breach of the status quo? As one commenter so eloquently put it, "Maybe workplaces need to chill."
Like, hair-based discrimination is still legal in some parts of America. And we're mad at the office sirens?
Of course, not that everything on TikTok should be taken as gospel. Sometimes, rules is rules and I'd advise everyone to avoid risking their job in the name of a micro-mini skirt (unless its, like, really cute).
But the office siren backlash does bring up a good point: Women's bodies are still being dictated by archaic traditions.
Maybe this is the one time we should listen to the sirens. Unless, I suppose, you're a sailor.
